The Cold Tyrant's Remedy

Episode 4: Close Enough

Nathaniel continued watching the screen as Lucia stepped into the elevator. As the doors slid shut, he switched to another camera and followed her across the hospital lobby toward the front desk.

“What else did you find?” he asked Marcus quietly.

Marcus stepped forward and placed a thin file on the desk.

“Her name is Lucia Isabel Vasquez. She's twenty-three years old. Was born in San Diego and moved here at nineteen for medical school. Her mother, Rosa Vasquez, died three years ago from an early neurodegenerative illness. She has no living relatives, no criminal record, and no serious relationships flagged in the last eighteen months.”

Marcus paused briefly before continuing.

“Financially, she’s drowning. Her mother’s medical treatment had wiped out the family savings. She works double shifts and she's renting a studio apartment in South Ridge which she can barely afford.”

Nathaniel dropped the tablet, picked up the file and opened it.

A student ID photo stared back at him. Lucia was younger in the picture. She looked more hopeful, serious too, with the same steady eyes that had fixed on him while he'd been shaking on the floor.

“What kind of neurodegenerative disease did her mother have?” Nathaniel asked and Marcus responded instantly.

“I wasn't able to get information on that because the file doesn’t specify. The death certificate only mentions complications from prolonged neural deterioration.”

This interested Nathaniel. He didn’t believe in coincidences. Years of betrayal and sabotage had taught him better than that.

“Dig deeper into it,” he said as he dropped the file. “I want the mother’s full medical history. I want the names of every doctor that attended to her, every medication she took, and every hospital she stayed in, even briefly.”

Marcus hesitated slightly before speaking.

“Sir,” his voice was careful, “The containment protocol is already active. Pulling records on a dead woman connected to the intern could attract attention.”

"Then don't attract attention." Nathaniel said as he picked up the tablet. "You've managed harder tasks than this, Marcus. Handle it quietly."

Marcus gave a small nod but said nothing. He was smart enough not to argue. After a few seconds, he spoke up. “There’s one more thing."

Nathaniel waited.

“She’s been blacklisted before.”

The room went quiet as Nathaniel set the tablet down.

“What do you mean by before?” Nathaniel asked.

“Someone attached a silent blacklist code to her file during her employment processing. It's not visible on her official record, but every major hospital in the city will automatically reject her applications. She won’t get another internship or finish her degree. When she's terminated from Crowe Medical, her career would be over."

Nathaniel leaned back in his chair.

He'd spoken to Doctor Nkosi about the containment protocol earlier, and they'd decided that they would only reassign the intern for now. This was so that they could terminate her quietly in a few months, long after anyone had stopped connecting her to the restricted wing. It was clean, efficient, and exactly what Doctor Nkosi had recommended.

Nathaniel's own plan, personally, had been to let her get terminated, and then offer her a different deal. This blacklist development should not change that, in fact, it might help. Because if she had nowhere to go, then she would have no choice but to accept his offer.

But then again, the idea that she'd been blacklisted told him that someone else with enough power had noticed her.

He did not like that.

"Who placed the code?" he asked.

"I don't know yet. It wasn't anyone in our system. The origin point is buried behind several layers of encryption. Someone went to a lot of trouble to make sure this woman never practices medicine."

Nathaniel stared at the security feed. Lucia had collected her badge. She was walking toward the exit now.

Who wanted her blacklisted and why? More importantly, would this silent enemy of hers hinder his plans?

“Remove the blacklist,” Nathaniel said finally, making a decision.

Marcus blinked. “Sir?”

“You heard me. Remove it. Do it quietly. Then extend her internship here. Make sure she receives a recommendation strong enough to override any future flags.”

Marcus stood motionless for a long moment.

"Extending her internship directly contradicts the containment protocol, sir. Doctor Nkosi might not agree."

"Doctor Nkosi works for me." Nathaniel's voice was calm, but the steel beneath it was unmistakable.

"Everyone in this building works for me. The only reason Lucia Vasquez is walking out of this hospital without consequences is because she helped me. That alone earns her more consideration than most people in this building will ever receive."

Marcus nodded, and after a moment, he asked, "And if someone asks why the intern who breached a Code Violet is suddenly being fast-tracked?"

"Then you tell them it's classified private family business."

Nathaniel stood up.

"Find out who blacklisted her. Find out why. And Marcus?"

"Sir."

"If whoever did this tries to interfere with her again, I want to know before they make their next move. Not after."

Silence filled the office. Then Marcus responded.

"Noted, sir. I'll handle it."

The door clicked shut behind him as he left the room, leaving Nathaniel alone in the dark office.

The tablet still in his hand, Nathaniel replayed the security footage again.

He watched her stand motionless on the sidewalk for nearly half a minute, staring back at the hospital. Then she wrapped her arms around herself and walked toward the bus stop.

Nathaniel set the tablet on the table and walked towards the window, he pressed his palm against the cold glass.

His body was still calm. There was no pain or tremors.

Twelve years of suffering, and a single touch from a stranger had given him more relief than every specialist and every treatment combined.

Nathaniel sighed, knowing it wouldn’t last. Whatever relief he'd been able to acquire had never lasted more than six hours. The curse always returned eventually.

He was going to have to see how long this relief would last.

And when the curse returned, because it would, he intended to make sure Lucia, the seemingly innocent intern, was close enough for him to reach.